A Thin Line
by Caitriona3
Summary: Darcy's world of scientists, agents, super heroes, and what-all is going to hell in a hand basket. Thank you so very much, Hydra! Sarcasm aside though, shouldn't she be tucked away in a safe house somewhere? Wasn't London enough? Why the hell is she on the front line of trying to take back the world...again? (Warning - Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence)


_Author's Note - This was supposed to be a one shot. That went belly up and here's what decided to happen. So, fair warning - I'm going to totally screw with part of the ending of Winter Soldier and definitely mess up the timing between the movie and the TV show. I want Bucky to be a good guy...or leaning good for this piece, so I had to make that happen. Mea culpa and please don't read if that's not going to put you in a happy place._

**The Beginning of an End**

Darcy Lewis wasn't exactly sure what the hell had happened. One minute she was trying to order her favorite mocha and the next…? Well, the next thing she knew Tasha popped up out of nowhere, hauled her to one of the ubiquitous black SUV's and all but shoved her into the back. Bucky caught her, pulling her completely into the vehicle and slamming the door. Clint's at the wheel and barely waited for Tasha to slide in beside him before he hauled ass out of the neighborhood. Why half of the NYPD wasn't chasing them for some of the stunts he pulled was another thing she's obviously not getting at the moment.

None of them talk.

All of them look ready for an attack.

She's not exactly a paragon of patience, but she's learned a lot since taking that six credit internship with Jane. Sometimes the best thing anyone can do is sit down, shut up, and observe. All kinds of information can be picked up that way. So she waited. She watched.

Clint's trying to get out of the city, not heading for the Tower.

The communicator with headquarters is in pieces on the console next to Tasha.

Bucky's face has settled firmly into Soldier's lines, cold and remote.

Darcy would never call herself a genius. She knows too many of them – Jane, Bruce, Betty, and God only knows there's Tony – but she's not slow either. The Tower's security could probably hold off an invading army, but they're not headed for it. All communicators come with a tracking device in case an agent runs into something too big to handle – and this one has been disabled. Soldier… 'He' rarely comes out around her which means the shit is really hitting the fans. All of this together? It pretty much adds up to one thing.

SHIELD has been compromised.

Darcy felt her fingers tremble, but she forced them still. Damn it, if she can deal with aliens, heroes, and the brilliantly insane, then she can deal with this! For the first time since Tasha snatched her an hour ago, she finally spoke up.

"Jane?" Her best friend-slash-confidante will always be a chief priority.

"Safe," Tasha replied, glancing back. "Thor and Stark took her, Pepper, Betty, and Banner to one of Stark's hideaways." Darcy frowned, but Tasha shook her head. "No one else knows about it. It's one of his father's."

That made more sense. Darcy turned her eyes to Bucky. "What about Steve?" 

"Punk's trying to meet up with people to get civilian consultants to safety," Bucky answered, one corner of his mouth hitching slightly.

"And what are we doing?"

"We going to meet with one of the field teams," Clint told her. "Fury's with them, so's Wilson."

Darcy's eyes slid over to Bucky who shrugged. She glanced up at Tasha. "Umm…what are they going to do when we pop up with…well…?"

"With me," Bucky finished for her. He shook his head, giving her an amused look. "Not going to bite you for an honest question, Sparky."

"Less than impressed," Clint said, putting in his two cents. "Fury hates it when people muck up his toys."

"I'll handle it," Tasha replied, giving her partner a repressive look. "Hill knew we'd managed to turn him – she would have sent word to Fury."

"Oh, boy," Darcy rubbed her temples. "So we're hoping news sent through broken down lines of communication managed to get through to a guy who has to have an itchy trigger finger by now?" She sighed. "Just for the record? If I get shot, I'm going to be very, very pissed."

All three gave her matching smirks, but didn't speak. That was okay. She could already feel some of the tension bleed off. That was kind of her point in speaking up anyway. She sat back and watched as they sped out of town, faster than really should have been possible and Clint drove them to a small private airfield. He talked to the man who stepped out of a hanger, and in no time the four of them were airborne and headed west. As usual, Darcy fell asleep during the flight, waking up only as they began to land.

The plane came to a stop and Tasha looked back. "Darcy, stay on board with Barnes. We'll call you when it's safe enough to come out."

"Don't get shot," Darcy told her seriously before pointing to Clint. "And don't let him get shot either."

Tasha gave a mere hint of a smile before stepping out of the plane. Clint followed and Darcy had to grin as she heard him muttering, "Why is it always you who has to keep things from happening? It's not like I volunteer to get shot."

Darcy looked around and spotted Bucky crouched near a window, staying in the shadows so no one could see him. "Bucky?"

"Stay put, Doll," he told her. "They're already watching you, so let's not give them a reason to get curious or touchy."

"Yeah, because that's not creepy," Darcy muttered. She sat back once more and let her mind wander as she waited. Whatever happened in Washington, and she didn't know because nobody was talking, she had been at the Tower when Steve and Tasha showed up with a half-feral, half-confused Bucky with them. All she'd managed to glean was that something in the last fight triggered some kind of wake-up call to his repressed memories and now they were jumbled about in his head.

He wouldn't really fight with the team, but he couldn't seem to decide whether he could fight against them either.

It made him difficult to be around for the first few days.

One morning, when he snarled at her before she had her coffee, she'd taken the folded newspaper from the table and smacked him with it. Everyone froze, and the fighters tensed. She ignored all of them. Dropping the paper once more – and why there was an actual newspaper in _Tony's_ kitchen, she still hadn't figured out – she stepped up to him and shook her finger at him.

"Look, Mr. Psycho-Pain-in-the-Ass," she fumed, "I get that you're confused and lost and snappish, but you need to dial that shit back. I was up until stupid o'clock in the morning trying to talk overly brilliant but frustratingly clueless scientists into understanding the simple necessity of sleep. I am now up at some insane time of the morning because science brains and agent brains and super brains and alien brains apparently don't require the same amount of sleep as us poor ordinary mortals." She took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes at him. "So you do not get to snap at me until I've had at least two cups of coffee. Try it again and I am going to happily taser your ass. At which point I will tell Thor I thought you were being rude and sit back to watch the show while you deal with his version of a lightning show." She turned her back on him and stumbled over to the coffee maker, muttering. "Six science credits….whole damn thing started with six lousy science credits."

Something about that morning became a turning point. Apparently she'd managed to impress both sides of his fractured psyche, and while he still had trouble with the team, he could deal with Steve and Tasha. They seemed happy with the outcome, and more so because Bucky took a shine to her. Somehow an unhappy rant became a recruitment speech for the ages…she managed to pick up a nearly six-foot, built for action, deadly super-soldier shadow. It was like she suddenly became his lodestone or something. He popped up everywhere, even helping in the lab when heavy lifting was needed. Some nights, when the memories and nightmares threatened to overwhelm him, he would end up camped out on her couch.

It probably said something about what her life had become that Darcy took the whole thing in stride with a sigh and a shrug.

The rest of the household seemed wary and unsure, but with everything SHIELD-related going insane, they didn't have time to waste on arguing. Tasha and Steve kept an eye on the situation while Clint offered to shoot him with a special Hulk-dose tranquilizer. Jane blinked at the whole thing, looked him up and down, and then told him that if he did anything to Darcy she would have Thor knock him out before she cannibalized his arm for her science projects. When he seemed appropriately cowed, she just nodded and told him to make himself useful by lifting up a machine so she could reach the part that need fixing.

Jane was awesome like that.

"Darcy?"

Tasha's call interrupted her thoughts and Darcy hauled herself out of her seat. She made her way to the door, feeling Bucky shadow her through the plane. She stopped in the doorway to let her eyes grow accustomed to the sunshine.

Tasha and Clint stood next to four people. One of them, a tall woman who appeared to be of some kind of Pacific heritage, watched Darcy like a hawk. Two more glanced up long enough to notice her before going back to some discussion over some kind of drawings. The way they kept pulling them back and forth spoke of a long time partnership and set her science vibes tingling. The final person seemed a few years younger than Darcy and stared at her in a kind of odd fascination. Darcy waited, but Tasha nodded.

"It's okay," Clint told her, stepping forward. "May's been brought up to speed and she won't shoot."

Darcy huffed, but began making her way down the steps. She knew the moment Bucky appeared because the first woman, who Darcy presumed was Agent May, stiffened and made an instinctive movement for her weapon. She checked herself, but Darcy came to a stop, almost stepping back.

"My apologies," May said quietly. "Instinct."

"Uh, huh," Darcy replied, frowning in hesitation. A strong hand on her shoulder urged her forward and she started moving once more. Bucky stayed close to her, close enough to grab her and haul her out of the way of any danger. Darcy let her eyes run over the small foursome for a moment before focusing back on May. "Hi."

"Miss Lewis," May nodded. Her dark eyes shifted over Darcy's shoulder and she hesitated.

"Barnes will do," Darcy told her calmly. "It's Sergeant, if you need a title."

"Sergeant Barnes," May acknowledged.

Bucky's voice came from behind Darcy. "Agent."

The little clearing fell silent for a moment before Tasha and Clint began talking quietly to May once more. The two scientist types didn't seem to be paying any attention to anyone else. The younger woman started to step towards Darcy, but May put a hand on her arm. She gave Darcy a resigned shrug.

"I'm guessing introductions are out of order," Darcy muttered, starting to turn towards Bucky. Movement caught her eye and she watched as three figures stepped out of the trees. She opened her mouth to call out a warning, but closed it when she recognized Nick Fury at the head of the trio. They came from an angle where Tasha and Clint couldn't see, but Bucky stiffened slightly. She glanced up at him and he had his eyes fixed on the man to Fury's left – who she finally realized was Sam Wilson, one of the people who'd helped in capturing Bucky originally. The third figure was half hidden by Fury until the director stopped walking. The final person took an additional step forward.

Darcy's eyes grew wide.

Phil Coulson gave her a nod and a slightly crooked smile.

She blinked, glanced over to Tasha and Clint, and then looked back. His face seemed a little unsure now and she sighed, her shoulders slumping. She walked over to stand in front of the two Avengers.

"Sorry to interrupt," she told May in a breezy sort of voice, "but this can't wait." The woman raised a stoic, unimpressed eyebrow and Darcy rolled her eyes. "Please. I deal with Maria Hill and Pepper Potts on a regular basis. They are the queens of the realms of Stoic and Unimpressed." May blinked in surprise as the other woman's mouth dropped open and Darcy just shrugged. Now she turned to face Tasha and Clint. "Okay, you two…there's really going to be no easy way to say or do this, but I need you not to shoot anybody, okay?" Here she paused, eyeing Tasha. "Also, no knives or whatever else pops into your mind when someone irritates you, okay?" Wry humor put a small quirk in her smile. "You really can't shoot Fury until the rest of this shit gets settled."

Now Tasha raised an eyebrow at her and Clint frowned. "Explanation?"

Darcy lifted her hands in a shrug and then nodded to a point behind them. "Him."


End file.
